Cyclic octatomic sulfur: a possible infrared and visible chromophore in the clouds of jupiter.

A brown polymeric material, produced under simulated Jovian conditions, is composed primarily of cyclic octatomic sulfur, although a range of complex organic compounds is also present. The polymeric sulfur, produced from the ultraviolet photolysis of hydrogen sulfide, exhibits its strongest band at 465 reciprocal centimeters, in fair agreement with the frequency of the unidentified Jovian absorber recently announced by Houck et al. Polymeric octatomic sulfur may be an important constituent of the Jovian clouds.